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Why not visit the West Burnaby Nonspecific Sickhouse? Conveniently located in that municipality to the west of Burnaby, West Burnaby, WBNS has much to discover, and much to explore.
Start at the bottom. Most of the buildings of the Sickhouse are connected by an underground network of corridors. This “tunnel” level, accessible from many stairwells and elevators, is no doubt technically off-limits to the public, but the few signs making this explicit are easily ignorable.
Go in the early evening on a weekend, and you won’t run into many people.
Security guards travel in packs of three, and smile sheepishly without much eye contact. In fact, they are your friends: like couriers with undelivered mail, they leave little slips on insecure and ajar doors, which are presumably intended for whoever is responsible for the room or space, but are also useful opportunity-flags for the urban explorer.
The Tunnel level not only gets you into the elevators and stairwells of various buildings, it is a destination in its own right. Low-ceilinged, utilitarian, hot, and pipey, these hallways are deliciously homely, and offer a nice grungy contrast to the sterilized public areas.
The Tunnel level is also home to service elevators, storage rooms for beds and other equipment, roaming forklifts, mechanical rooms, a print shop, laundry rooms, and the anuses of garbage and biomedical waste chutes.
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The intrepid will want to brave the hanging plastic and “Danger Construction Area” sign to enter the Ash Bosom Center via the Tunnel level.
The ABC is currently undergoing asbestos abatement, but you don’t need to worry about that, unless you are planning to exercise inside the walls for thirty years.
Indeed, you’ll have a hard time finding walls. Twisted metal studs are all that remain of the walls that once divided this building so effectively into rooms. The former rooms are piled with the mangled detritus of the former walls and ceilings.
Though no doubt neat and systematic, the demolition appears to have been largely the work of sledgehammer and resentment.
All the floors are much alike. Avoid spending too much time on the roof in full daylight.
Give the main floor a pass, too: that’s where the on-site security guard, speaking Tamil into his cell phone, defends himself against the monotonous naggings of his wife.
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The Laurel Pavilion should be your next stop.
It has many nooks and crannies, and even some wild abandoned areas. The connoisseur of peeling paint will not be disappointed by the stairwells.
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The Decade Pavilion forms an X. Not the stairwell at the center of the X, nor any of the four stairwells at the points of the X, lead to unlocked rooftop access, alas. The top few floors are active patient wards, but no one cares about you -- go where you want. Nurses will let you out of secure wards that you have accidentally let yourself in to with a smile. Nevertheless, these floors can be skipped if you are in a hurry.
Absolutely not to be skipped is the abandoned operating wing on the after-first floor.
The pamphlet I looked at was printed in 1993.
This filing cabinet had been crowbarred into, I think unsuccessfully. I imagine this was the (failed) attempt of some former owner of the files, rather than some roaming pill-freak, for instance.
The thing on the right is an "illuminator."
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Great Work and photos!
My sister is Charlotte Light and Dark. Who am I?
Farewell and thank you... "I was doing something that I thought could have some impact someday. In many ways, it's really these photographs that kept me going creatively." Dennis Hopper | |
Nice one.
god created the au/mc to test the faithful.
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dude nice photo set! looks like a cool place to inconspicuously wander around
[last edit 5/1/2014 4:27 AM by gunther - edited 1 times]
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I always go back to the WBNS whenever I'm in the neighborhood.
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Nice post Bill, thanks!
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire... Tunnelrunner33! | |
Always lots to see at the WBNS.
There is a kind of utility tunnel system connecting some of the buildings, it seems. I found an entrance into one of these. It wasn't very comfortable: I had to get down on my haunches and waddle through it.
Here's a picture of the tiniest (< 3 feet high) fire door (sign reads "Fire Door, Keep Closed"):
I emerged, down a ladder, into a kind of machine shop room, which had another tunnel opening, and a normal-sized exit to the "Tunnel" level hallway that runs underneath the hospital. Lots of opportunities for exploring there for the intrepid.
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There is a new building going up at the WBNS.
It was pretty easy to get into. There was someone working there, making periodic loud noises.
This is a view from the roof down into the center court.
This is a view across False Creek from the roof. You'll have to take my word for it.
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I think you had your camera in potato mode for this one!
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Posted by SaladKing
I think you had your camera in potato mode for this one!
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Heh. My camera is a potato.
Actually, it's worse than a potato: it's an old flip phone.
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Love, love, love medical facilities. WBNS seems like an absolute must, will definitely have to poke around.
Feet in the air, head on the ground. | |
I continue to pop in to the West Burnaby Nonspecific Sickhouse when I'm in the neighborhood.
Doors that last time were unlocked are today locked; but sometimes a door that last time was locked is today unlocked.
This person liked horses.
Some bags of linen never made it out of this linen chute in the former health records department.
The calendar is from 2007.
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Hey, great documentation my fellow urban expeditioninst. I will be visiting later today - will post findings.
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This was great, multiple chuckles were extracted, and I thank you kindly.
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Posted by EPOCH6
multiple chuckles were extracted
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LOL @ chuckle extraction
Give abandonment a reason for its sacrificial reclamation to nature. Love it. Remember it. Take a picture. Share it. Leave the decay to nature.
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